Chavely Cruz Cárdenas graduated from the University of Wyoming in May 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a 4.0 GPA. As the student speaker at her commencement ceremony on the UW – Casper campus, she received a standing ovation. Many were moved to tears by her story of navigating the challenges of immigrating to the U.S. while excelling as a student researcher, overcoming countless obstacles to thrive in a new country.
A hat full of dreams
At age 23, Chavely Cruz Cárdenas left her home in Havana, Cuba, to pursue post-secondary education in the U.S. She dreamed of attending medical school and becoming a doctor.
“In 2017, I left my hometown and so much more than that, I left my family and friends,” she recalls. “I left with just a small backpack and a hat full of dreams.”
After a few months in Florida, she headed west to start a new life in Wyoming, where her grandparents lived. “I wanted to start working, save money, go to school and make friends right away, just have a normal life, but I had to learn to be patient,” she shared in her graduation speech. “As a new resident to the country, I had to learn the language as well as about taxes, credit cards, bank accounts, and other stuff. It felt like I was a baby trapped in an adult body.”
Braving the language barrier
When Cruz Cárdenas first arrived in Wyoming, she struggled to carry on a conversation in English. Looking back, she recognizes that making mistakes was just part of the learning process. At the time, though, she felt anxious and embarrassed.
Before diving into college coursework, Cruz Cárdenas joined the English as a Second Language (ESL) program at the Castellow Adult Learning Center in Casper, where she later volunteered. At the same time, she worked at a local restaurant to help provide for her family.
In 2019, Cruz Cárdenas started taking classes at Casper College—while also working a full-time job and volunteering at the Castellow Adult Learning Center.
It was exhausting. “In Spanish, I had to study, but not with the same intensity because it’s my language,” she explains. But in the U.S., she had to study in English and Spanish at the same time in order to keep up with her classmates.
“It was not easy working full time and at the same time taking hard-core science courses such as physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and genetics in another language. I was always worried about not being at the same level as the rest of my class,” she recalls.
In her chemistry notebook, a blend of Spanish, English, and numerals danced across the page.
“What is this?” a friend wondered, glancing at her notes. “That’s how it works for me right now,” Cruz Cárdenas replied.
She’d write her papers in Spanish, then painstakingly translate them into English. It was difficult—not to mention time consuming. Her English vocabulary lagged behind the complex topics she was trying to explain.
In fact, writing in English was such a struggle that math-intensive homework was a relief. Numbers didn’t need to be translated. Her physics instructor, noticing her aptitude for mathematics, tried to coax her into majoring in physics instead. But she was determined to continue on her path, no matter how challenging it might be.
A straight-A student
Cruz Cárdenas graduated with distinction from Casper College in 2022, then began taking classes at UW – Casper. She immediately set her sights on her next goal: graduating from UW with a 4.0 GPA. “That was a crazy goal,” she says—but she did it.
“I know a grade doesn’t define you as a student, because we’re human beings, but for me, it was huge because [it meant] getting a straight A in every course in another language,” she comments.
It wasn’t easy. “At some point, I was feeling so overwhelmed, I wanted to drop out,” she says. In addition to taking challenging classes in a language she was still learning, Cruz Cárdenas was the main financial provider for her family in Cuba. Balancing a heavy academic load with a full-time job was a huge stressor, but she couldn’t afford not to work. Back in Cuba, her family members struggled to access even basic necessities like food, clothing, and medication.
“In my journey, I had to deal with some people who did not believe in me at all,” she said in her graduation speech. “They thought that I was not going to be able to go to school, pursue a degree, and manage work because of the language barrier and aspects of being an immigrant…but at the right time, I met the right people. People who were angels and believed in me the whole time.”
One of those angels was her research mentor, Florence Teulé-Finley, who teaches from UW’s Casper campus and also serves as coordinator of the Wyoming INBRE (IDeA1 Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) program.
Biomedical research
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, Wyoming INBRE provides opportunities for students at UW and Wyoming community colleges to participate in biomedical research. Through lab experience, competitive internships, and other educational opportunities, the program helps set students up for success in the sciences.
These experiences are especially beneficial for non-traditional students, who might not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in rigorous lab-based research, Teulé-Finley explains. “It’s about training in the scientific process, setting up experiments, collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting,” she says. “We try to involve as many students who are interested as possible.”
For Cruz Cárdenas, the INBRE program was a great source of hands-on experience in a lab setting, allowing her to design and conduct her own experiments. She loved seeing the real-world relevance of what she’d learned in the classroom. While other students complained about taking chemistry and math, Cruz Cárdenas quickly realized how valuable those courses were in lab. Adding chemicals in the correct order or calculating concentrations properly really did matter, and it was gratifying to see what happened when she got it right.
“I love science,” she says, smiling. “Since I was a kid, I remember I was always playing like a scientist. I was stealing stuff from the kitchen—oil, water—doing my own experiments.”
Under Teulé-Finley’s mentorship, Cruz Cárdenas not only learned valuable laboratory skills, but also contributed to two research projects in collaboration with UW faculty. “I also like Florence’s style, the way she teaches you is amazing—she really makes you love lab,” Cruz Cárdenas says. “Florence trained you to do things by yourself. You don’t depend on her the whole time. I liked that because when you’re working, you have to depend on yourself.”
Her first project in Teulé-Finley’s lab, which examined the female reproductive cycle, was a collaborative effort spearheaded by UW faculty member Amy Navratil. The project focused on better understanding ovulation in mice, a process that involves cellular components known as microtubules. Cruz Cárdenas and her lab mates in Casper contributed to the project by genetically engineering a recombinant vector, a DNA molecule modified to contain and transport specific genetic information. This recombinant vector allowed Navratil’s team in Laramie to track microtubule movements in mice. At the conclusion of the project, Cruz Cárdenas presented her team’s research poster at a regional conference in New Mexico.
In her second research project with Teulé-Finley’s group, Cruz Cárdenas joined a collaboration led by Laramie-based faculty members Danielle Bruns and Brian Cherrington. This research focused on understanding how, at the molecular level, heart aging differs in males versus females and how those differences impact cardiovascular risks in the two sexes.
Cruz Cárdenas was first author on the research poster associated with the project, skillfully communicating science in a language she’d struggled to learn just a few years before.
Limitless opportunities
Like Cruz Cárdenas, Teulé-Finley immigrated to the U.S. in her twenties to pursue educational opportunities. Originally from France, she earned a PhD in genetics at Clemson University. While they came from different countries and backgrounds, Teulé-Finley could relate to the challenges Cruz Cárdenas faced in pursuing higher education in another language.
“She came here as a non-native [too],” says Teulé-Finley, who joined UW as a research scientist in 2003. “She’s a non-traditional student and has had to deal with a lot. I told her, ‘As a foreigner, you’re going to have to be better than anyone else. That’s how it is.’”
It’s a high standard, but Cruz Cárdenas is more than equal to the challenge. Despite the obstacles she’s faced throughout her educational journey, Teulé-Finley says that “Chavely always has a smile on her face, even when she struggles. She never says no, she just gets it done.”
After graduating from UW in May, Cruz Cárdenas has continued to work full time as a bilingual family support specialist with the nonprofit Parents as Teachers. While she hopes to attend medical school in the future, she is keeping her options open.
“My journey has been far from perfect—it’s been messy, challenging, and at times, downright exhausting,” Cruz Cárdenas said at graduation. “But in every setback, I found an opportunity for growth. In every obstacle, I discovered a hidden strength within myself that I never knew existed. For those people who did not believe in me my answer is: ‘The sky’s my limit.’”
This article was originally published in the 2024 issue of Roots & Ranges, an annual magazine published by the UW College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources.
